


The miller's daughter

by ShadowSelene (Shadowdianne)



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Canon Divergence, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-29
Updated: 2016-03-03
Packaged: 2018-05-16 22:48:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5843968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowdianne/pseuds/ShadowSelene
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Give me two months” She said “And you will be the one asking me to travel together”<br/>Canon Divergence, Emma and Regina meet on the enchanted forest; Emma is a princess, Regina the miller's daughter. After a rather strange meet up in the brunette's village Emma asks the older woman for something that Regina is not sure to give. The blonde then makes Regina the promise that she would make her be the one asking her to be together after just two months.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A stranger and a bet

**Author's Note:**

> A/N Prompt made by doberlove1 over Tumblr. Hope this is what they had in mind ;)  
> Original prompt:Eva was not killed by Cora or no family feud and Regina was born to Cora+ Henry and Emma was a princess but Regina was born in the millers house & poor and once day Emma came to her village in a disguise and fell in love with Regina at first sight and asked for her hand but Regina wanted to be in love or something so Emma promises her that within certain days she will win reginas heart and it will be Regina asking her to marry her  
> PS: In order to make the timeline fit I have moved things just a lil’ bit so Cora and Henry Sr are Snow’s age and not Leopold’s.  
> Disclaimer: I don’t own OUAT nor her characters and I plan on leaving them where I found them after I finish playing ;)

The chirping sound of the early-raising birds made Regina yawn as she woke up, the smell of flour that always seemed to get stuck on her nostrils tickling her nose until she sneezed, her still slowly opening eyes fluttering shut as she did so. The first weak rays of morning illuminated the rickety old bed in where she slept, the planks that conformed her bedroom welcoming her once she managed to open her eyes for a second time.

Groaning, she grabbed the covers of her bed and turned, yawning once again when the voice of her mothed floated from the adjacent room,  her father answering to her in that tired way of him she had grown up to behind it. Finally stretching and rising, she let the covers slide off her body before picking them up and folding them quickly, calculating by the sun that she had indeed overslept just a bit.

Her mother was waiting for her with her hands on her waist, her right brow rising ever so slightly as Regina seated in the table a friend of her father had made from them after last winter’s flooding. Smiling sheepishly at her mother the young woman grabbed the already cooling porridge and looked at it, nodding at her father when the man, already half covered in flour and stone dust, smiled at her in the same way.

“We need new grain” Her mother said from her place at the head of the table, her stern eyes softening slightly when she eyed her husband. “Yesterday you said that we almost couldn’t finish the order for the monarchs”

Henry didn’t answer but a nod of his prematurely grey head was apparently enough for Cora to let the matter drop. Eating as quickly as she could Regina mentally listed what she already knew were going to be her chores for the day, a small smirk curling her lips when she saw her mother shaking her head, the sound of her clicking tongue enough to make both daughter and father eye each other from the two sides of the well-used table.

It was an already common theme to have Cora making Henry remember the numbers and orders he needed to be done and as far as Regina’s memory could go it had always been that way. It had been her mother the one who had grown up in a mill after all and it didn’t matter how many years had passed, her father didn’t always seem to remember the little tricks every miller knew by heart by the age of twelve.

“Regina” Her mother said, her suddenly stern voice making the brunette jump slightly from her sit, her chocolate brown eyes meeting her mothers who eyed her with a mix of tiredness and amusement. “I want you to go to the village and ask the baker if knows for any other miller that still may have had grain that can sell to us, fairies know that he negotiates with more than one of us”

“Of course mother” Regina replied succinctly, the already empty porridge bowl laying in front of her. She had overslept with her  day clothes so she stood and turned, eyeing the little room that was used as a kitchen and whose big entrance led to the first floor that connected the mill with the little house her father had been able to rent a few years before she had been born.

Cora Mills sighed and eyed her husband who was already standing in the same fashion as her daughter; quickly and with his back slightly bent onwards, his short height becoming more noticeable with the way he kept standing, hands permanently white by flour moving nervously in front of him.

She still could remember the man she had in front of her dressed as the noble he had been once and even though the line that marked where the rings had been displayed on the man’s hand had long ago disappeared her memory brought them freshly to her mind’s eye. Clicking her tongue once again she grabbed the empty bowls and tilted her head towards her daughter, the young woman tidying after her as Henry trudged his way to the first floor as usual. They were already running late and the voice of her father echoed on Cora’s mind, the multiple chores she had been forced to learn floating at the back of her head as if it had been yesterday when she had learnt them.

“Regina…” She called for the young woman once the brunette disappeared in the little room that was close to the one both Henry and her used as a master bedroom.

“Yes?” The head of her daughter appeared as the woman fastened her cape around her shoulders, her dress scrapping the floor while she moved towards her mother.

“Be careful”

The young woman smiled and nodded, her chocolate brown eyes lighting ever so slightly as she followed her father’s footsteps making Cora sigh softly to herself as she saw her daughter disappear, her teeth biting her bottom lip as she started what would be her own chores for the day.

-.-

Emma grabbed the hem of her hood and looked at her feet as she passed by a group of guards.  Their strong voices were slightly slurred by their obvious inebriation. Still looking at her feet she passed in front of them, nervousness and exhilaration clouding her vision until she turned to her right, entering into a new, darker road that almost no one seemed to want to stop by. Smirking as she straightened her back she let the hood fall at her back, her buoyant blonde curls shining at the midday sun that managed to illuminate the dirt-made road in where puddles of the storm that had isolated the land the night before were still visible.

She had thought about her escapade for weeks now, meticulously taking notes on the amount of guards that were on each door, the amount of times they were changed and who were the easiest ones to fool in case she was discovered. Thankfully, that hadn’t been needed and she had been out of the castle in less than an hour with the clothes Graham had given to her the day before covering the- still perhaps too much prince-like-clothes she normally wore inside the castle to her mother’s chagrin. Still smirking and looking at the plain maroon clothes, she grabbed the ring and medallion that led away her status and put it on the leather pouch that hung on her right side, the long cape she wore covering her movements. Her boots splashed against the poodles when she moved forward, carefully looking at her sides as she walked. She wasn’t really known due to her fame of not liking public outings with both of her parents so it was unlikely that she would be recognized by the common folk but the guards that also worked in the castle were a different kind of danger and she wasn’t ready to go back to the place in where she felt scrutinized to death both by her mother and fairy godmother yet.

Shuddering at the thought of the stern-looking Blue she kept walking, noticing the narrow houses in where the ones that seemed lucky enough to live in the village appeared to have; not taller than two floors, almost all of them seemed to work both as shops and houses and from the narrower windows of the second floor the smell of food could be sensed floating in the air. Tilting her head to one side and returning her jade-colored pupils to the road she had in front of her the princess kept walking, remembering to always turn with the castle at her right, not wanting to lose her track.

Feeling bold when she crossed with an elderly woman who eyed her clothes and later on her face she smiled at her, smirking when the woman didn’t seem to neither recognize her nor care who she was. Looking at the way the village seemed to burst with life from the different points where voices of the ones that tried to sell their goods came and went Emma moved quickly, carefully dodging groups of guards that stood in different points of the dirt-covered streets.

To be truthful she knew that escaping, or  momentarily loosing herself, wasn’t exactly one of the best ideas she may have had but the life in the castle, the constant need of being something, someone, who she wasn’t had been enough motivation to make her think on actually living the life of a princess behind. An idea she hadn’t pursued when she had realized that probably her ever-loving parents would march against the neighbor kingdom, the one inhabited by the Dark One, trying to find her and that wasn’t something she would ever want to cause or see considering the awful tales about the reptilian-like imp who lived there.

Grabbing her pouch whenever she came nearer to the groups of children that seemed to fill the widest roads she finally arrived to a street in where bread and other foods could be bought. The village, narrow as it was, had many small streets that crossed the main ones and so she needed a moment to relocate herself, sighing when her senses finally showed her where she was standing.

-.-

Regina smiled politely at the chubby son of the baker and exited the little shop, hands at her back as she mentally kicked the dirt with the boots she had managed to buy to the hawker a few summers ago. The well-worn leather boots looked at her discouragingly as she mumbled under her breath. The baker had refused to tell her the names of any other millers and considering how close the village was to the actual royal castle it would probably be impossible for her to find any other baker who would trade that information so easily. Shaking her head and ironing the brown skirt she wore, she straightened her back, the left side of her body colliding against a strong lithe one, the movement making her almost fall backwards.

Closing her eyes she readied herself for the impact only to be stopped by a quick pair of hands that didn’t release her until she felt her two feet steadily touching the floor below her.

“I’m sorry” She heard, the feminine voice of her savior holding an accent that even though it seemed to be from the kingdom it also seemed to be completely different. “I wasn’t paying attention”

“Don’t worry” She replied, turning to look at the woman, feeling a blush growing on her cheeks as she saw the younger blonde who was currently looking at her; green changing eyes blinking slowly, pink soft-looking lips opened in what seemed to be a word that hadn’t been said. Regina looked at the fairness of the skin that was on display; long strong fingers encased in a brown leather gloves, an equally well-worked leather as a vest and well albeit worn pantaloons that ended in brown mid-calf boots. “I… wasn’t looking also”

The blonde stranger nodded once, seeming as awestruck as she was and with a long and perhaps too much complicated flourish she nodded, her left eye being obscured for a second due to one long blonde tress. Regina caressed her own hair, suddenly self-conscious of how she could look to the eyes of the other woman.

Emma, for her part, was completely speechless, her green eyes noticing different details in the figure of the perhaps slightly older woman that stood in front of her, the clear limpid brown eyes and quirked mouth in something that seemed to be the ghost of a permanent smile the things that called for her, a sudden feeling of warmth and nervousness growing inside her stomach as the two of them kept staring at each other, eliciting a few curious looks for a few of those same kids Emma had tried so hard to dodge a few minutes earlier.

“I’m Emma” She finally said, blinking away from her stupor and suddenly feeling more nervous than warm. “Emma… Swan”

The surname came to her with a stumble, the memory of her younger self feeding the animals back with Graham the thing that came to her brain first.

The brunette’s right brow quirked, curiousness and perhaps something else clouding her pupils for a second.

“Regina Mills” The brunette replied. “I’m… the miller daughter” The meek declaration followed by a shrug made Emma smile ever so slightly.

“Quite an intelligent surname then” She provided, eliciting something that seemed to be a challenge from the other woman’s eyes.

“At least is better than the name of an animal that would probably end up roasted”

The blonde chuckled at that and nodded, this time being hers the time to shrug. She felt herself pulled towards the other woman and as Regina started to walk she followed her steps as well, forgetting her intent on going back to the castle before her absence was noticed by the monarchs.

“Touché” She declared softly. “I heard though that there is this pirate far away from our costs that calls himself Hook, talk about bad names…”

Regina found herself smiling at the other woman’s declaration, her feet making her take the path back home; without any grain or information it was probably the smarter thing to do but as Emma followed her she found herself walking slower than what she normally would, leaving the village soon behind them, the smell of forest circling the two of them like a blanket.

“So” Regina said, looking at the taller woman at her side, she didn’t seem to be neither dangerous nor about to steal anything from her and even though she knew it was against her better judgement she felt a connection with the other woman, something that told her she wasn’t dangerous at all. “You are from the coast? Of that pirate of yours I mean”

Emma’s lips quirked in distaste at that though; whereas she knew that her parents had considered to make her marry the Lord turned out to be pirate for a few months she had managed to dodge that marriage after discovering that the shady man still made trades with the Dark One. It had been a few unpleasant weeks though and her mother’s ideas about marrying hadn’t stopped in the slightest even though it had been her idea in the first instance the one who had made Emma learn about the infamous Hook.

“Nope” She finally replied, looking at the woods in front of her after smiling quickly at the woman at her side, the path was easy and well-marked and even though the scarce light the tall trees made possible for the sun to illuminate with it was easy to known where the castle was so she felt confident as she walked next to the brunette. “I’m from here actually”

Regina shook her head at that affirmation; even if she was quite a loner and had been ever since she had been little she knew that she would have heard about a blonde girl almost as old as she was before.

“Try again” She taunted with a smirk, crossing her arms over her chest as she walked. Emma’s eyes were momentarily drawn to that particular area and Regina felt herself blush before continuing “I’m from here and I would have learn about you before if that was the case”

Emma draw her head back and laughed merrily, her voice echoing against the trees that surrounded the path. She knew that she should feel scared, or at least not as confident as before now that everything that seemed to surround the two of them were trees but the warmth on the other woman’s eyes made her shrug and nod, admitting defeat. As comfortable as she was she wanted to keep herself in the shadows, at least regarding her title.

“Perhaps I’m one of the merry men” She said rising her chin. She had learnt about the bandits on one of the latest classes she had taken with her tutors and albeit she hadn’t exactly like them she had feel exhilarated with the idea of being a free woman who was able to come and go as she pleased.

Regina hummed at that; the clothes Emma wore were decidedly the ones of a man, of one that even though wasn’t rich was able to procure for himself quite well. The leather and hunter like clothes certainly could be a clue that what the girl was saying was true but somehow Regina couldn’t see the blonde being one of those bandits. She had heard about them but apart from some gory tale one of the farmer that worked with her father had told her she hadn’t really been in front of one of them before.

“I think they wear green like the leaves of the forest in order to be invisible” She said with a shrug “You don’t seem to be one of them”

Emma visibly deflated before returning to her long strides, pink lips stretched in a smirk.

“Touché once again, my majesty.”

The name made Regina blush once again, looking at the blonde at her right who seemed completely unaffected by what she had just called her. Smiling, she turned at their left, already seeing the silhouette of the mill in where both of her parents were probably still working on.

“There is where I live” She said, pointing at the structure and mentally scolding to herself when she realized that her mother was probably going to be disappointed by the lack of grain.

“I’ve never been so close to a mill before” Emma admitted, the building looking even taller as they approached it, standing proudly in the middle of the forest. A few farms and similar structures were barely visible from where they were.

“No?” Regina frowned, curious at that information; as far as she knew mills were one of the most common structure in the whole kingdom since they were the responsible for the trading of grain between the other kingdoms that resided in the enchanted forest. “Are you from overseas?” She questioned, noticing the suddenly nervous way the blonde seemed to stand, her left hand caressing her neck, as if she waited for something to be hanging from there.

“No” Emma replied, shaking her head. “But I would want to travel there one time”

Regina hummed; she had once felt the same way, back when Daniel had talked about enrolling on one of the ships that the near kingdom of Midas provided but those dreams had never happened at the end.

Smiling tightly, she resumed her walking, the mill seeming even bigger now they were slowly climbing up the hill where it stood.

“It would be interesting to see what’s out there” She admitted softly, the blonde at her side nodding her head once while walking. Her breath was slightly labored but she didn’t seem to mind and as Regina eyed the strong-looking legs of the blonde she questioned what exactly could do the other woman for a living.

“Just imagine” Emma finally said, feeling suddenly emboldened by the way Regina was looking at her. “Crossing the seas and living there, fighting against monsters and sorceress…”

“I would be with you”? Regina cut in, smile back on her lips when Emma replied with a fervent nod.

“Of course! We would be the most powerful couple on all the realms!”

Emma bit her tongue as the last syllable left her mouth, suddenly realizing of what she had actually said. The brunette was still nothing more than a stranger and so, blushing, she tried to erase her last comment, her tongue feeling clumsy on her mouth.

Regina from her part chuckled at that, looking at her feet as she felt yet another blush building at the back of her neck, the easiness the mysterious blonde seemed to talk with making her feel relaxed. “I doubt we would be the most powerful couple” She said, noticing the flustered cheeks of Emma and deciding to try the same game the green-eyed woman seemed to play with. “We barely known each other”

Emma looked up at the sound of the brunette’s voice, realizing that she may have not done something terribly wrong as she had feared a few seconds before. Feeling safer with the steady gaze of Regina looking at her she smirked, bowing just like she had seen her father do multiple times in front of the noblewomen.

“Give me two months” She said “And you will be the one asking me to travel together”

Her words were serious, perhaps even more than what she thought and for one second it seemed that she really should have listened to Blue’s incessant talks about destiny before Regina tilted her head to one side and nodded, accepting the bet.

“Two months” She said “Woo me Emma”

And with that and a wink she turned, leaving Emma behind with a smile on her own lips and a sigh on her throat.


	2. A mill and an idea

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Anyway” She finally said, looking at the blonde and silently admiring once again the beauty of her green irises that looked back at her. “What do want to do, oh great explorer?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N I was really going to write four chapters for this story but… well, as it normally happens my muse decided to kick in and the story is going to finally be seven chapters long. I’m sorry for the setback though, my grandmother has been in the hospital for this past week and things haven’t exactly being easy for me to be able to write. Either way I hope you all like this chapter and as I already said to italymystery-swanqueen over Tumblr nope, no angst this time. I promise ;)  
> Disclaimer: See chapter one.

Emma smirked as she passed by the gates that led to the outside of the village, the smell of dirt and manure hitting her nostrils once the odors weren’t covered by the much richer smells of slowly rotting fruits and game of the stalls that were at both sides of the main road. She had done it again.

Even though market day had been the day before due to the good crops the region had been blessed with here and there groups of people could be seen either selling or buying goods and trinkets, the guards as vigilant as ever. The groups that both exited and entered in the village were still numerous though and the blonde-clothed in Graham’s clothes once again- exited the town with a smile under the hood of her garbs. The sun was already quite high on the sky and the woman moved swiftly between the trees, glad with herself of being able to remember the path that led to the mill.

The day before she hadn’t had problems on entering town, and later on the castle, although the second she had disrobed and proceed on changing to her clothes her mother had entered in her chambers, sweet smile on her face and dozens of questions about her day and classes. The blonde had managed to lie as quick as possible, mentally patting her own back by not only her quick thinking but by her luck. She knew that she would need to be careful if she started to not attend her classes- even more than usual- but, for now, as she walked in the forest leaving behind everything that made her the princess, she forbade herself into thinking such things like her mother or the responsibilities she theoretically needed to take as the heir of one of the biggest kingdoms that existed in the whole forest.

Making a face at the thought of her title, she patted the pouch in where her ring and medallion rested once again, the crest of her family safely hidden.

She hadn’t exactly had time to think about what she had decided to call luck but as she had thought once she had laid in her bed Regina had seemed to be not only sweet but interesting as well and a part of Emma had literally swooned over her own feet when she had first seen her. She had always thought that her parents were being extremely sweet to the point of rotten teeth whenever they talked about the moment they had met but it had been something inside of her that had seemed to be telling precisely what her father first and her mother second had whenever they had tried to make her understand what true love exactly meant. Grinning foolishly at the thought she shook her head as she turned to look at the impressive structure of the mill hovering in front of her.

The repetitive sound of rock against rock was audible even from where she stood and, curious, she moved forward, climbing up the hill and clutching with her hands the hem of the cape she wore, bothered by the way got tangled with legs as she moved.

The main door of the mill, the one she supposed led to the part of the place in where the mill actually worked, was halfway opened and from there the same noise was audible albeit she wasn’t able to distinguish anything else apart from that. The sound of rock against rock, slightly stronger now, seeped between the planks of the door which she pushed with her left hand after a few moments of doubtful contemplation; Regina didn’t seem to be outside however and so she decided to enter, thinking that she would maybe be able to see the woman inside. As soon as she took a step inside though, she blinked, seeing for the first time a mill’s interior.

The first floor was mostly dedicated at what Emma assumed to where the already half prepared sacs of flour, a few of them half-filled where a few others were stocked to her left in a pile, already waiting to be put on a cart. The floor was also covered in the precious white dust and the steps of the beginning of a stair were visible at her right, just a few steps away from the door she had just opened. She bit her lips for a second, doubting to go up and take a look or not. For what she knew those lands were her father’s albeit it had been later on rented to the millers, the details were fuzzy for her since her tendency to get asleep on her classes but as she took a step towards the stairs she swallowed once, suddenly and inexplicably feeling nervous and not entirely sure that she was able to be there.

Regina’s voice was what made her stop on her tracks, the brunette’s tone resounding at her back. Once she turned she found the aforementioned woman standing proudly between herself and the door, her left hand holding what seemed to be a gigantic burin.

“Emma?” The brunette said, taking another step towards the blonde, the princess trying hard not to blush as she left the beginning of the stairs and approached the brunette “I thought that you weren’t going to come today”

Frowning, Emma shook her head, pointing at the burin who Regina had now tucked between her two hands, the lean muscles on her bared forearms standing ever so slightly as she did so.

“I came as early as I was able to” She finally answered “What’s that?”

Regina looked at her hands before staring back at Emma, a small smile growing on her lips as her eyes locked with the blonde’s. “My father wanted to sculpt the grindstone once again, he said that the drawings were already starting to fade”

The answer left Emma as confused as before but she nodded, not sure if she was supposed to know that kind of information. Regina, who saw the flicker of doubt in the blonde’s face, smirked and handed her the burin, laughing when Emma stumbled against the weight of it for a second before taking a hold of it.

“The grindstone has drawings in order to grind the cereal, with time those drawings start to fade and we need to redraw them. That’s why my father needed the burin”

Blushing, realizing that she had been caught, Emma tossed the burin to one hand to the other. As strong as she was the weight of it, albeit not enormous, was certainly bigger than what she would have imagined and she promised herself to ask Graham to train her better already knowing that if her mother knew about it she would certainly disapprove.

“I didn’t know that” She finally admitted to the brunette, raising her head and smiling at the still smirking woman.

Shaking her head, Regina picked up the burin once again and shrugged. “Don’t worry” She replied in a whisper that was meant to mock Emma “I won’t tell anyone that the amazing explorer doesn’t know how a mill works”

With that, she took a step towards the stairs, the right side of her dress brushing against Emma’s who let out a small smile, proud and happy to see that her promise didn’t seem to have been forgotten.

“I will let you tell it if you come with me, even the most incredible explorers need help after all”

The proposition made Regina laugh, her legs already climbing the stairs; she had woken up early that morning, expecting to see Emma as soon as she started to make her chores. However, as hours passed and no sign of the blonde was visible she had started to doubt that the green-eyed girl would ever be back.

Blushing once she realized her thoughts she turned and eyed the still smiling woman below her, the blonde tresses she had visible between the hood and the cape that seemed to be her signature. Leather vest and pantaloons still in place the resemblance to a hunter came to the brunette’s mind.

“I don’t think that I will ever be able to go with you” She decided to answer, laugh audible on her voice “What else an explorer who doesn’t know how a mill works ignores?”

Pouting, the blonde stomped her feet against the stairs.

“You will see one day” She said rising her head haughtily “You will be asking me if I want to go with you”

“We will see” The brunette repeated, smile turning a smirk. “Would you want to come?”

Emma looked at the stairs for a second before looking back at the brunette. “Won’t I be bother?” She asked, now that Regina was in front of her she wasn’t so sure that she could actually enter the mill. However, the brunette nodded and smiling warmly at her. She would have normally not asked to an almost stranger to enter with her inside her house but there was something about the blonde that made her confide in her.

“Not at all had” She answered “Come, I will show you around. I need to give this to my father after all”

With that the two women started to go up the stairs, Emma taking one step after the other carefully, not knowing the uneven steps as well as Regina did.

“The second floor is for us” The brunette explained once the passed in front of an open door, the interior seeming d to be small but well used, burned wood and the smell of flour floating in the air. “We have a small house at the other side of the mill but we use it on the cold months of the year. For now the house is full with some things that need to repair. The burin was there”

Nodding, Emma followed Regina, her green eyes seeing the two small doors that seemed to lead to two equally small rooms inside the second level. The brunette, however, didn’t stop and so the blonde could only see that before the door was left at their backs.

“My mother” Regina kept explaining “Is now trying to buy some grain, my father miscalculated the numbers once again and…”

“You don’t have enough grain?” Emma asked, frowning at the idea.

Regina shrugged, suddenly ashamed of herself for telling such thing to the other woman. “It’s quite normal” She answered “My father often makes mistakes in things like that but since we are already quite deep on the season millers aren’t as keen as before to let us buy their grain. My mother is trying to make amends with some of the millers near us. She always manages to make deals with them so it’s not a problem.”

“She seems like a piece of work” Emma said, blinking curiously when Regina’s laugh floated towards her.

“She is” The brunette admitted “Father is always trying to make it look like he knows what he needs to do but it’s her the one who actually knows everything around here. She has been working as a miller way before my father started after all”

That made Emma curious but her questions were cut short by the voice of a man which floated towards were they were, its accent slightly different from Regina’s if she paid enough attention.

“I’m here” Regina replied to her father’s call, climbing the last few stairs with two strong strides. “I have the burin”

Emma followed the brunette until she found herself inside what seemed to be the third and final level of the mill, the sound of rock against rock louder than before as well as the wind whose force made the wood of the construction creak and protest with every turn. Inside the room a man shorter than Regina stood half crouched in front of what Emma decided to seem the grindstone the other woman had told her about minutes before.

“Thank you” The man said without turning, a look of profound concentration on her face when he finally moved, his eyes blinking owlishly at Emma.

He seemed to be the culprit of Regina’s infectious smile since when he finally smiled as well it made Emma want to smile as well.

“I’m sorry” He said in a weak, tired-sounding voice “I didn’t seen you…”

“This is Emma” Regina intervened as she approached the grindstone, letting Emma enter fully on the room in where the whole structure of the mill welcomed her. “She is… a friend of mine.”

“I’m Henry” The man provided to the blonde, looking at her with a mix of interest and curiousness that made Emma swallow for a second, suddenly wanting to be sure that both her ring and her medallion were on the right place instead of plainly visible to that man.

However, if Henry saw on her something that didn’t add up he didn’t say and so soon enough he was turning, picking the burin from his daughter’s hands and pushing them away gently.

“I will take care of this, if your mother enters here and sees you doing this kind of work I will be the one this stone will be grinding”

The joke, albeit said with a smile, had a tad of the truth on it as Emma could read from Regina’s suddenly stiffened back but the green-eyed princess didn’t say anything, her eyes focusing instead on the multiples parts of the mill and how they moved simultaneously.

“Woah” She muttered, trying to make the girl’s attention forgot about what her parents had just said. “It’s incredible how everything here works”

Regina, smiling softly at her companion, nodded and turned towards her father “She had never been inside a mill before” She explained and it was her father’s turn to look at the blonde, something on her pupils making Emma swallow nervously once again.

“You haven’t?” The man asked to what Emma answered as a shake of her head, her tresses bouncing against her face as she did so. The leather of her clothing, albeit comfortable, was starting to feel heavy in the somewhat cozy interior of the mill product by the mix of sunrays and wood and she raised her hands, unfastening the cape slightly. At the sight of her digits the man frowned before shaking his head, looking at her daughter once again, the brunette already eyeing the stone who was being repeatedly gyrated against the, what the princess distinguished now, seemed to be grain.

“When do you want to redraw the symbols?” She asked to his father, the man turning and approaching the girl.

“After I finish with this batch, your mother said that she was probably to take her a while to manage to get new product from the neighbor so I will use that time to draw the stone”

Regina seemed about to say something but ultimately decided to remain silent, her attention back to the blonde who was still looking curiously at the man, her brows furrowed as she did so.

“Emma?” She asked, making the blonde blink and look at her, an apology already growing on the tip of the brunette’s tongue.

“Go with her” Henry intervened though, his warm voice making the two women look at him. “I don’t need your help and your mother will be thrilled to know that you have a friend”

“I doubt that” Regina replied, but with a warm hug to the man she accepted the gift that those newly found free hours were, taking Emma’s forearm and descending the stairs with a final “Bye, dad” which resounded on the entire place.

“Eager of going on an adventure with me?” Emma asked with sarcastically at what Regina answered with a shrug, the blonde and she already halfway the stairs, their arms still linked.

“Not yet” The woman replied “But having a free day is not usual so I’m going to take it as it goes”

“Do you usually help your father?” Emma asked then without missing a beat. The brunette hummed before replying once they arrived at the beginning of the stairs, the door that led to the outside still ajar.

“No” She admitted, spinning and looking at the blonde “I tend to help my mother, she thinks that working with him is not something I should do, apparently she needed to work like a full-time miller back when she was under my grandfather’s roof and…”

With a sigh and a shrug she didn’t delve further, not sure of what else she could say to the woman in front of her. The tale about her family was one that almost everyone near the city knew by now, who her father had been one that almost everyone knew as well. It was kind of refreshing not being put under the microscope because of who they two where and what they had done and so she remained silent.

“Anyway” She finally said, looking at the blonde and silently admiring once again the beauty of her green irises that looked back at her. “What do want to do, oh great explorer?”

-.-

That night Graham opened his eyes only to find none other but the princess standing in the little room he had on the lower side of the castle. Such thing, albeit somehow strange, didn’t make him move a muscle and with a sigh he closed his eyes.

“Go” He groaned “I’m asleep”

Emma seated on the edge of his bed and gave him a punch, her green eyes glowing slightly at the slowly dimming candle the man had left before going to sleep a few hours before. She was clothed in her normal clothes, ones the queen hated for its manly appearance but not the ones he had gave to her a few weeks before.

“If you were you weren’t talking right now” Emma replied smartly, smirk audible on her voice.

“Then I must be a non-living creature from the land of the dark one” The hunter said back, trying to get back to sleep. He was supposed to go into a hunt that would probably last several days at the break of dawn the following day and he had the suspicion that he wasn’t going to be able to sleep anymore.

“Perfect, you won’t get tired then” The blonde said, making the man sigh and look at her, tousled hair covering his eyes as he tried to blink the sleep away from them.

“Has something happened” He finally said between yawns. “Did the guards have caught you?”

“Nope” The woman replied, crossing her arms over her chest in where the crest of her family was visible thanks to the gold thread in where it was sewed into the blue doublet. “But I will try to change my strategy; one of them had looked at me curiously when I walked past him”

Sighing, and still not entirely awake, Graham let the blonde talk to herself, knowing by now he wasn’t going to get any answer until the blonde had had its fun.

Graham and Emma had been almost inseparable since the day the boy’s father-now deceased- had entered to work into the castle. The two of them had become close friends during their teen years and the risk or rumors that had circulated in the place about the boy being in love with the princess and vice versa had quickly dissipated by Emma one day when she had proudly admitted she wasn’t a tad interested in the slowly becoming hunter of the castle. Graham had supported his friend’s admission and the two had remained as friends months and years after the boy had been first given permission to kill an animal under the king’s rules.

It has been him who had helped Emma into discovering when was the best time to escape the castle, what would be the best hours and the stupidest guards and so seeing her in front of him could only mean one thing.

“I’ve met someone” The blonde finally said.

Or two.

“She is amazing” Emma continued, sighing for a second before continuing “And I have promised her that I would woo her in less than two months”

“And you want my help” Graham elucidated, amused smirk ghostling over his face. It was a not-so-secret tell how horrible the blonde woman could be trying to impress someone. Her skills were almost the same as the one Queen Merida was believed to possess. Her kingdom was far away from Emma’s parents to be considered that kind of thing truthful statement.

Emma take a big breathe before admitting a yes. “I want her to fall in love with me” She admitted.

“You can’t do that” The hunter said, sitting on his bed and crossing his own arms very much like Emma still had her own. “You can’t force anyone into anything”

“But…”

Graham coughed once before looking pointedly at the blonde. Over the years albeit the woman wasn’t exactly what a princess should be she had grown accustomed to have what she wanted the moment she want it and even though she wasn’t as spoiled as she could have been considering everything and that her fairy godmother was no one else but Blue she still had those kind of moments Graham wanted to smack her.

“Ok” Emma finally admitted “But I want to be her friend, what do you think I should do?”

“Let’s see…”


	3. A promise and a question

The first sunrays found Regina already up, her bleary eyes blinking tiredly as she tried to wake up enough to dress herself. She could hear her mother’s normal rumblings at the other side of her closed door and as she picked up her dress and yawned for a third time in as much minutes she almost smirked when she heard a frustrated sigh, probably due to her father’s soft answers, ones that Cora despised, against the woman’s impatient remarks.

Once she had dressed herself she bit her bottom lip, mentally finding herself thinking about Emma and the promise the blonde had make her the day before.

_“I will be here tomorrow”_ The blonde had said and Regina, just to mess with the green-eyed woman, had scoffed and winked at her, smirk in place when she had shrugged and walked away.

_“Earlier than today?”_

Emma hadn’t answered that, just blushed when Regina had looked back at her and the brunette had found herself smiling the rest of the day, long before the blonde had go back to whatever place she came from.

Sighing and closing the door of her room behind her the brunette nodded towards her father who was already finishing his own breakfast. The man had been deadly silent since yesterday and Regina felt relieved to see him smile for a second towards her. Cora, however, remained on her spot on the left side of the place, looking at the numbers jotted down on a parchment, her eyes never leaving the page when she directed Regina towards her already cooling breakfast.

“I want you to help me this morning” The woman’s voice rose, not leaving room for Regina to question her.

The brunette sighed but didn’t answer, knowing full well that she would never manage to make her mother retract herself once she had given an order. Looking at the piece of parchment the woman still had on her hands she nodded towards it, right hand already holding the spoon while Henry kept silent at her side.

“Everything all right?”

Cora nodded and hummed once before directing her eyes towards Henry, the man seeming momentarily ashamed before he mumbled something under his breath.

“I managed to get a deal with Mr. Jones about our lack of grain” The older woman finally replied scratching furiously a number on the parchment. Regina gulped at that. Jones’ family had always been a sore spot from Cora since way before she had been born and she knew that giving her mother’s temper it would probably have been difficult for her to ask for their help. More so when it had been her father’s fault. “But I will need to go to visit him later today and pay the sum they had asked us so I expect you to do every chore I need you to do, understood?”

Regina nodded silently at that, Cora smiling at her briefly before directing a reproving look at Henry who bit his lower lip before raising himself, kissing Regina’s cheek with his lips, his stubble-covered cheek grazing the brunette’s skin for a second before he winked and turned away.

“I will be at the third floor if you need anything” He said, the ever-present white powder coming out of him in slow puffs of air that dissolved as soon as they had created, leaving a trail Regina smiled at.

Turning and finishing her breakfast she eyed her mother who sighed and looked at the numbers for a few more minutes before standing and going to pick up her cape.

“You know where everything is” She stated, smiling at her once before hesitating, the ghost of a kiss the only thing Regina got before the imposing woman left the room. “Take care”

-.-

The sun had been up for more than an hour when Emma managed to get in the right trail that ended in the lower part of the hill where the mil stood. Panting while nervously retouching her clothes the blonde princess looked at her right where the sun still painted everything in golds and pinks. She had needed to actually be ready and awake way before the servants started to do their daily job but the change in the guards that normally surveyed anyone  who got in or out the castle without permission had been what had made her exit the place later than what she had expected.

Mumbling under her breath as she finally got in front of the construction this time she didn’t spend any time looking at it. For what she had managed to known about the brunette beauty she would be awake at this time. Biting her button lip and not knowing exactly what to expect, she knocked the wooden door once she was sure that everything was in place. The door, like the day before, creaked when she pushed it, finding herself once again in the shadowy interior which seemed to be waiting for her. This time, though, with no one to talk to.

Feeling bold, the blonde took a step inside, playing with the hem of the doublet she wore, the weight of her pouch suddenly seeming to grow as she looked at the stairs that led to where she had seen Regina’s father a few hours before. Shaking her head and starting to climb up the stairs she tried to remember the speech she had worked on with Graham after she had managed to make the man awake enough to actually listen to her ramblings.

_“Hello Regina, would you want to…”_

Her feet led her to where the brunette hadn’t let her take a look inside and out of curiosity she eyed the interior of what she had thought had been quite a small but cozy place. Her thoughts however, where cut short when her name was spoken from the farthest corner of the room, brown brilliant eyes looking back at her as she stared blankly at them.

“Emma!”

Regina hadn’t thought that the blonde woman would be there as soon as she had promised yesterday she would be; something on the blonde told the brunette that she didn’t quite like early mornings. Which had precisely been why Regina had played with her the moment Emma had assured her that she would be there in the first place.

Now, however, having her there made her smile. Her mother had left the mill less than twenty minutes ago, muttering something about old deals, ones she perhaps shouldn’t have taken down and whereas sleep still clouded her mind a little there was the feeling of happiness to see her friend once again.

Even though she wasn’t going to cave so easily on said friend’s words.

The blonde smiled broadly at her before entering the room, Regina looking at her feet where dust and flour powder laid, waiting for her to pick it up.

“Sorry” She said with a shy shrug “Morning chores”

Emma blinked slowly at that, realizing a second too late that the brunette was, in fact, cleaning the room with an old broom.

“Oh” She whispered “Should I have come later?”

The question, albeit one Regina felt that she would have wanted to dismiss, was one that the brunette knew she needed to take. Her mother had been quite adamant that she needed her to finish her chores and she had indeed spent quite a few time with the blonde the day before. Nibbling her lower lip as she eyed the blonde in question she couldn’t help but realize that the normal clothes of the blonde were slightly different.

Where the worn-out leather vest had been it stood another from a darker shade, making the blonde look more dashing than normal. The boots were clean and her cape looked like it had been cleaned it up. Tilting her head and realizing that Emma had indeed caught her staring she approached the blonde, the broom doing a soft swishing sound as she moved forward.

“My my” She muttered, instead of answering the obvious question “Preparing yourself for the trip, explorer?”

The blonde’s eyes turned from confused to smug and Regina almost smirked on how far too easy the green-eyed woman was.

“Perhaps” Emma said “Would you want to go with me?”

Before Regina could answer to the already very well-known question she heard the heavy steps of her father coming down from the last floor, the sound of his cough due to the many hours he spent inhaling the flour, ricocheting on the mill’s walls as he did so.

“Regina?” His tired voice the first thing that entered the room before the rest of his body did so. A warm small forming on the corner of his eyes the second he saw his daughter’s and the woman who accompany her. “Hello, Emma”

“Hello sir” It was strange for the blonde, she had been in front of nobles from all the sides of the kingdom and she had never felt as nervous as she now felt looking at the warm-looking miller, his eyes seeming to never leave the blonde’s fingers which, she realized, had been playing with each other nervously since the man had entered into the room. “I decided to stop by”

The man nodded once before turning his head to Regina, the brunette smiling sheepishly at him.

“Have you finished your chores?” The miller asked, his voice rising at the end, his accent resounding again on both girl’s ears.

The girl shook her head before sighing. “I need to do quite a few things for that to happen, father”

The man hummed and nodded, cleaning his hands on his knees before bringing them up to his chin where he caressed his face slowly, the wrinkles around his mouth and eyes smoothing as he eyed his daughter once again.

“If you finish them later you can go with your friend, I will tell your mother that I’ve asked you to go to the village or something.”

Nodding once and beaming the brunette took a step forward and embraced her father as Emma stood awkwardly in the middle of the room, smiling gratefully at the man who winked at her once, suspicion seemed lifted from his eyes.

“Take care” He added “Both of you”

And with that he turned, going back to his place at the top of the miller, leaving behind a confused Emma and a still smiling Regina.

“So, explorer” The young brunette said “What had you planned?”

Shaking her head and realizing that she indeed had the brunette all to herself the princess opened her mouth, parting her lips and licking them for a second before actually speaking, her voice being swallowed by the thick walls of the room, making it sound deeper than it actually was.

 “Would you want to walk with me?”

-.-

The clearing Graham had talked Emma about the night before was easy to spot once the hunter had told her how to get to it and so soon enough both women were walking down a path that would bring them to said clearing, the river that run next to the city and which was used for the laundresses singing softly at their left as they kept moving forward.

“Your father is the best” Emma finally said after long minutes of silence that threatened to become uncomfortable once they left the mill at their backs.

“He is” Regina confirmed with a nod “But I’m worried that mother will be mad at him for this, I shouldn’t have left so early”

Emma eyed the brunette from the corner of her eyes, taking once again the breathtaking sight that the other girl was. Remembering what Graham had told her about letting the other choose instead of imposing her will she played with the leather pouch for a second as they kept walking, the sudden need to grab the brunette’s right hand growing as she smiled at her.

“Would you want to turn back?” She offered, her voice dubious but still honest enough for Regina to smile at.

“Not for now” The brunette admitted with a conspiratory smile, making the princess smile at her for it. “Where are we going though?”

Emma pointed in front of her, the trees that hovered around them seeming to grow as they approached the place Graham had talked her about.

“I’ve been told that it’s breathtaking there” She said with a smug smile, green eyes glinting. She was still waiting for the brunette to answer her proposition and so when Regina replied her answer with a nod and a barely hidden smile she felt nervous.

“Who have told you? Some of the merry men?”

The question, albeit it made Emma smile, made her shake her head, rising one hand while doing so as they kept walking, forest growing darker as they walked. The sound of birds and other animals were now their only companions and so both  blonde’s answer and Regina’s voice seemed to grow quieter as they walked, leaving behind every trail of the city and its surroundings.

“Another friend… an explorer”

“Just like you then?”

Emma snickered at that, knowing full well that Graham would surely have laughed at that question.

“No” She shared “He is a hunter”

Regina frowned at that, tilting her head and looking at the slightly taller girl at her side. It was well known that hunter’s and the crown didn’t mix well and even though she had suspected that the blonde herself could be a hunter judging by her clothes knowing that she was in fact friends with one made her even more stranger to her eyes. And definetely more interesting.

“A hunter?” She asked, trying to seem little impressed with what the blonde had told.

Meanwhile, Emma was biting her tongue, suddenly worried that she had perhaps told a little too much about herself. She at first had wanted to say who she was to the miller girl but after they had started to talk the truth of her status had turned out to be something she really didn’t want to think about.

“Yes” The blonde finally answered, her boot stepping into a tree branch that cracked under her weight. “He… knows this place well enough to tell me where to look at”

Regina hummed, not sure of what else to say. Emma certainly was a quite interesting woman, one she was almost sure her mother wouldn’t exactly approve and not just because the man’s clothes but the apparent freedom she seemed to enjoy.

“I had a friend like that once” She finally shared “He worked as a stable boy in some of the stables that provide horses for the crown. He usually showed me places like this one whenever I was free to go with him.”

Emma nodded at that, she had go to the stables a few times before, going with her father whenever the man allowed her to. The place was huge and she could remember a few young boys almost as older as she was working with the stallions as her father asked her bits and pieces of the things her teachers had tried to teach her that day.

“What happened with him?” She asked looking at the brunette when the woman fell silent, smiling brightly when the entrance to the clearing finally revealed to them, the place certainly beautiful even though due to the still early hour the sunrays didn’t quite lighten the place as they probably would later in the day.

She turned fast enough to see Regina picking up a little violet flower, her fingers playing with the petals of the flower as her chocolate brown eyes seemed to turn slightly darker.

“I don’t know if you were here last year” She finally said as both Emma and her seated in one tree log, the clearing quiet from where they were; dots of light dancing between the trees as the sun kept moving forward ever so slowly, bringing the colors of the forest back to life from the shadows. “There was a flooding that finished with most of the crops”

Emma hummed at that, not sure if she was allowed to say something about it. She could remember her mother asking her father to trade more with the other kingdoms so they could provide new crops to their subjects. She also could remember the Blue Fairy saying that even though the flooding was horrible it had only affected a small part of their parent’s lands.

“What happened?” She finally decided to ask instead, her hands turning into fists when she saw the tiredness passing in front of the other woman’s eyes, the violet now lying limply from the brunette’s hand.

“Daniel’s family was one of the ones that suffered the most, his job as a stable boy wasn’t good enough for them and so they decided to leave”

It was a clipped answer, one that left behind perhaps too much things that Emma would never know but the blonde laid a palm on the brunette’s arm, squeezing it slowly.

“He asked me to go with him” Regina added, a sad smile on her face, tears glazing her eyes. “But I told him that I couldn’t”

Feeling a pang of jealousy Emma took a gulp of air, Graham’s words echoing on her mind.

“Why?”

Regina, voice now thick with tears, shrugged before answering. “There were too many things to do here, my mother, my father… they both needed me. I couldn’t ask Daniel to wait for me though and so he left”

Emma bit back a sigh and she kept silent, smiling softly at Regina when the woman looked at her. There were perhaps too much things she wanted to say in that moment but there was something on the miller girl she knew that she needed to wait for first.

“Did you love him?” She finally asked, eliciting a shake from Regina’s head.

“I do miss him though” The brunette finally asked, closing her eyes and smiling shyly before opening them once again. “He was my friend for a really long time”

“I will be yours” Emma promised and the brunette girl nodded, sadness morphing into quiet glee.

“Let’s see about that”

-.-

Cora eyed her husband once Regina closed the door of her room at her back, disapproving eyes making the man sigh uncomfortably.

“She did all her chores” The miller finally said, rising one pale hand into the air and the woman could do nothing but nod at that.

Regina had arrived at the mill an hour later than she had, sporting a smile that she hadn’t seen on her ever since Daniel’s departure. Which made her happy for her but still angry that her orders hadn’t been followed just like she would have liked it.

“I still don’t understand why you let her go like that with an almost stranger” The woman finally answered, sighing and looking at the closed door from the corner of her eyes. She trusted Regina, and as strict as she was she also knew that her daughter was both smart and strong. She wouldn’t be easy to distract or kidnap. Still, the dark one’s men were very much real, as much as the merry men and there were many things she would prefer to avoid.

When Regina had returned, smile on her face, she had asked her where she had go electing a mumbled response from the brunette, something that had sounded like a name and shy explanation she had tried to pry from the sudden silent girl with a stern glare. It hadn’t been until Henry had come down from the miller’s highest floor that she had let her daughter go free.

“Regina trusts her” Henry was saying in that moment, making Cora look back at her with a movement so fast that she almost groaned at the pull she felt on her muscles.

“There is still too many things we don’t know about that girl” Cora replied back.

“How about we let them be for now though?” Henry asked and the woman sighed, knowing that her husband wouldn’t let that one. Ever since Daniel Henry had wanted a friend for Regina and even if Cora would have preferred to find someone for her daughter to marry she was happy with the knowledge that perhaps she wasn’t going to be as lonely as before.

Even though she still wanted to meet that girl.

“Besides” Henry said as an afterthought “There are also things I would like to know about Emma…”


End file.
